Windows to Wellbeing proves a successful intervention at UCL

The project, run by an interdisciplinary group comprising researchers from Psychology, Public Health and the Bartlett School of Planning, was awarded £10,000 by the Grand Challenge and the CRUCIBLE centre at UCL in 2012.

The team was awarded the grant to run an intervention for new students at UCL alongside staff at the end of their UCL careers, to ascertain whether wellbeing could be improved for people undergoing these periods of change.

The team designed wellbeing interventions designed around the 'Five ways to wellbeing' framework and tested them with almost 100 participants.

In comparison to before the intervention, anxiety was reduced significantly among the participants three months after the intervention. The three month follow-up also showed that life satisfaction had increased significantly among the participants and the tendency to ruminate had decreased. Thus the intervention appears to have been successful in increasing wellbeing.

Further research should investigate the possibility of creating more online wellbeing interventions in large institutions such as UCL.

This is just another example of the impact that Grand Challenge funding can have, at UCL and in the wider world.